The present invention relates to fixing or anchoring device for holding down, in a removable and reliable manner, an object on a surface, such as, for example a land-going motor vehicle seat on the floor of the former.
In many technical sectors, it is necessary to hold down, in a fail-proof manner, an object on a surface. Such is the case, for example, for land-going motor vehicles called "single-volume people-carrier type"vehicles which derive both from the internal compartment called an estate and from the utility vehicle called a small van. Given the universality of use intended for these vehicles, it is necessary to equip them with removable seats capable of assuming multiple and varied positions, which are preferably predetermined, that is to say, each capable of assuming a certain number of positions which positions are separate and well-defined.
Seats of this type must, for example, be able to be opened out completely as a bunk, as a relaxation chair or "lounger", as a normal so-called driving or travelling seat or to be partially opened out as a shelf. They must also be able to be retracted in order to be folded partially or to be folded up totally in a compact and relatively unbulky manner and with a view to concealing them in the vehicle or to removing them from the latter.
For such an application, it is therefore necessary to have available a system for anchoring and locking to the floor of the vehicle, with easy handling, which is such that a seat installed on the floor can effectively be occupied only when the system is not only locked but also confined in such a manner as to render it unfailing.
Indeed, for safety reasons, especially in the event of violent impacts having a large longitudinal component, determined in relation to the vehicle, it is necessary for the seat not to give way under its occupant or even be driven by the latter should the seat belt which equips the seat be no longer directly anchored at two or three points in the structure or body shell of the vehicle, but, on the contrary, this belt forms part of the seat and is as it were "on-board" on the latter, the various points of anchorage of the seat belt being set up directly on the seat itself. It is understood that the forces to be absorbed and/or to be transmitted in the event of impacts are essentially localised, especially in the area of the subframe of the frame and of the floor of the vehicle, as well as at their junction.
It is understood that there is every possible difficulty in satisfying all these, often contradictory, requirements, in particular when it is recalled that such a system has to be produced in high volume and at the lowest cost, and this must be achieved in a particularly reliable manner.